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Stoutsville
is located in the northwestern part of Jefferson
Township, on Sec. 13, Twp. 65, R. 9, on the M. K.
& T. R.R. and was laid out in 1871. The town
was named for Robert P. Stout, a wealthy and
influential farmer, who came to Monroe Co., from Ky.,
at an early day and died at the age of 67 years. His
widow gave the railroad company six acres of land, and
to express its appreciation it named the town in honor
of her husband. The first business house in the town
was erected by Dennis Thompson and was used as a
grocery store. The first dry goods and general store
was opened by Henry Dooley and J. R. Nolan. Dennis
Thompson opened the first drug store. Jethro Hardwick
was the pioneer blacksmith. Dr. Hagan was the first
physician. Albert Price was one of the first
postmasters.
--Directory
of Towns, Villages, and Hamlets, Past and Present, of
Monroe Co., Mo. , p. 157, 156; Conard, Vol. 6,
p. 99
More
History of Stoutsville
Straddling
the east-west line of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas
railroad a quarter of a mile east of the north
fork of Salt River, the town of Stoutsville is
situated in a creek valley on the broken edge of a
great prairie region in Monroe county. The town was
named in honor of pioneer landowner Robert P. Stout
whose family donated land to the railroad after his
death in 1867. Between
its original platting in 1871 and World War I,
Stoutsville was
a trading point for the surrounding farming community,
railroad town, cattle shipping point, lumber area and
regional center for the manufacture of wood products.
Early
town development paralleled the railroad line
beginning with an eight block area ,three along the
north side of the tracks. five on the south. Steep
limestone bluffs and deep cuts for streams directed
the town’s growth to the rolling hills to the north,
and by 1917 six additions containing nine blocks
doubled the town’s size. The area around Stoutsville
was most suitable for Kentucky immigrants, with its
rich bottomland. spring water, and timber for lumber
and fuel resources richly abundant in the township.
One
of the first buildings in Stoutsville was a log
structure used as a church and school. According to
local legend, Samuel Clemens and his Quarles cousins
attended classes there in the 1840’s. In 1875, a
daily stage operated between Stoutsville and Florida,
with mail service two years later. J.W. Conrad &
Company established a pottery works in 1881, producing
stoneware famous in the region. Stoutsville became a
major shipping point for railroad ties and hardwood
timber, products obtained from rich stands of oak,
hickory and walnut. During the 1890’s, Stoutsville
reached its peak of prosperity. Besides having a
railroad depot, three dry goods and general stores,
two drug stores, four boarding houses, a furniture
store, cabinet shop, saloon, blacksmith shop (where
spring wagons were made) and a telegraph and express
office. The town had such amenities as two hotels and
a picture gallery as well as a one-room opera house.
In 1879, the town gained the services of a medical
doctor, and in 1893 the farmers’ bank was
established.
In
the early morning hours of May 17, 1909, Stoutsville
sustained a major fire starting upstairs in Lyon’s
Drug Store. The fire first engulfed the entire north
side of Broadway, and then spread across the street
where it destroyed the other half of the town’s
major businesses. Due in part to war prosperity,
Stoutsville grew once again in the years 1910-20,
rebuilding much of the downtown area. Sustained by
farming and lumbering and augmenting its growth
through the continued manufacturing and shipping of
railroad ties and cattle, the town also supported
light industry in the form of a pipe factory (hickory
smoking pipes) and an axe handle factory.
The
structural evolution of Stoutsville falls along
traditional lines. As the town prospered, frame
buildings replaced earlier log ones, and, due largely
to the great fire, many were in turn replaced by
masonry (both stone and brick) structures. The rebuilt
downtown blocks consisted largely of one and two story
buildings with frame facades and structure and
limestone party and rear walls. Houses were generally
modest frame structures one to two stories in height,
many built in the same vernacular that characterizes
the Hugh C. Slee house. Some of the more notable
structures were the Farmers’ Bank,a single-story
stone building with a pedimented corner entrance, the
two story Frame Valley House Hotel, the two story
stone high school (replaced later with a brick
building) on the west bluff, and Saint Andrew’s Catholic
church, a stone gothic revival edifice.
The
decline of the town began after 1920. Bypassed by the
state highway and financially beset by the closing of
both banks, Stoutsville's population and importance as
a commercial center began to dwindle. From a
population of several hundred in 1900, only
seventy-five people remained in Stoutsville and the
township in 1970. At the time of its 1971 centennial a
few business structures remained, but all commercial
and residential life within the town’s boundaries
had ceased. In 1974, the railroad was relocated 300
feet to the north, obliterating much of the remainder
of the town. To the north of the town, a ”new
Stoutsville” (containing two frame churches and a
number of houses moved from the old town) was
established in an area that will remain above the
wateline of the Clarence Cannon reservoir. In 1978,
only the shells of the structures along Broadway and
a handful of domestic buildings still remain.
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