This Goodspeed Brothers collection of sketches was originally published in Chicago in 1864. Southern Historical Press, Inc. reprinted the book from an 1894 edition in 1978, 1984 and 1995.
I have included the Descriptive History of
Christian County and the individual sketches of the citizens of Christian
County. Please note that as with all
source material, there may be errors in the original or in the subsequent
transcriptions.
A large debt of gratitude is due to June Weaver and Vaunda Gardner for the transcription of these pages.
Christian
County was detached from Greene County, March 8, 1860, and organized that year.
The James, Finley, Swan, Buffalo and Panther afford drainage in every section.
Lead ore abounds, while lumber and fertile valley lands aid making this
district naturally rich. Wells erected a small cabin on the banks of the Finley
Creek in 1822, and the Pettijohn party arrived the same year. The Delawares
entailed many troubles and anxieties on the pioneers, until their removal to
Kansas in 1836. During the war the county was almost robbed of its inhabitants,
the courthouse was burned and Federal and Confederate aimed to destroy it
forever. Ozark, the county seat, Kenton, formerly Linden (surveyed in 1847,
Billings, Bull’s Mills, Sparta, Chadwick and Minersville are the principal
settlements.
The
population of Christian County in 1890 was 14,017, divided as follows: Benton
Township, 408 (or 175 decrease in ten years), Finley Township, including Ozark
Village, 2670; Galloway, 1370; Lincoln, 1353; Linden, 775 (a decrease of 875 in
ten years); Linn, 635; Logan, 411; North and South Marion Townships, 1237; Polk
(including Billings Village), 2236; Porter, 1077, and Sparta, 1793. The
population of Ozark in 17890 was 490 and of Billings, 464. In 1880 there were
235 inhabitants in the first and 129 in the second named villages. The
postoffices are Aisle, Billings, Boaz, Cassidy, Chadwick, Clever, Eaudevie,
Elkhead, Garrison, Griffin, Highlandville, Hope, Kenton, Nixa, Ozark, Pembina,
Reno, Riverdale, Selmore, Sparta, Spokane and Velsor. Like its sister counties
to the east and west, it adds cotton and tobacco to the catalogue of staple
products, such as grains and fruits – West Plains being the entrepot or
principal cotton and tobacco market for that section of the country.
The
histories are indexed alphabetically by surname of the subject. Use the links below
to connect to individuals or use the search engine to find individual names.
A B C-D-E F G H I-J-K L M N-O-P-Q R-S T-U-V W-X-Y-Z