Center Township

Center Township

Center township comprises congressional township 35, range 31. It occupies exactly a central position in the county from east to west, and its northern boundary is in the center from north to south.

A little more than the eastern two miles of the township is prairie ; the remainder was originally covered with timber. Lit¬ tle Drywood in the western part, Moore's branch and Birch branch, in the southern, which are the principal streams, are widely bordered with timber.

South of Nevada, and almost adjoining the town, most valu¬ able quarries of blue sandstone have been opened. The stone is well adapted for ornamental work of various kinds and much of it is in use in the asylum and in other buildings. It is but reasonable to conclude that this stone is to be found else¬ where, since the general variety to which it belongs (hydraulic sandstone) is frequently to be seen. There are numerous ex¬ posures of sandstone along the streams, notably on the western border of Nevada, on the Ft. Scott road.

Coal lias been found in the northwest quarter of the town¬ ship. The belief that natural gas exists under the surface near Nevada is not sufficiently general and strong as yet to induce speculative capitalists to bore for it. The greater portion of the coal consumed in Nevada is brought from other parts of the county. Near Nevada a gravel bed exists as a depth of sixteen feet, and that in this bed logs and sticks have been found in digging wells. South of Nevada, on Birch branch, is a good mineral spring.

First Settlements

The first actual settlers in Center township were John Hale and Jesse Anderson, who came directly from Pulaski county here in the fall of 1840. Hale located about three miles west and north of where is now the public square in Nevada, and Anderson built his cabin a little east of the southwest corner of the fair grounds. At the same time a man named Swearingen settled on the asylum grounds, his house standing a short dis¬ tance west of the site of the main building; he was from Inde¬ pendence, Jackson county. In a year or two Swearingen sold

August 10, 1841, Hale and Anderson were re-enforced by the arrival of Luke Hale and James Skaggs, the former the father and the latter a brother-in-law of John Hale. The Hale family came originally from Bledsoe county, Tennessee. Luke Hale died in the fall of 1853, and was buried in the old graveyard, northwest of Nevada. Anderson died at Luke Hale's probably in 1844; John Hale died in Kansas, and James Skaggs died in Moundsville township in February, 1871.

David Teel, a Pennsylvanian, and the father of Peter Teel, came from Knox county, Illinois, by way of Clay county, Missouri, to Vernon, and in July, 1842, settled at the head of Birch branch, near where the railroad depot now stands. Mr. Teel and his family occupied temporarily an empty cabin which had been built a year or two previously by John Son, Jr., whose father, Samuel Son, lived two and a half miles north of Nevada. John Son had built his cabin, lived in it for a time, and then moved back to the neighborhood where his father lived. In a week Mr. Teel removed to another vacated cabin, which had been built and occupied by "Runaway Bill" Moore; in a short time there¬ after he bought out a claim on which old Nicholas Ganther had settled, north of the Minden railroad (north part of section 21), a little more than a mile south of Birch branch.

At that time there were living in the township, besides the Hales,. James Skaggs, and Jesse Anderson, and perhaps one or two others ; Rev. Benjamin Moore, who lived on the branch bearing his name on the west half of section 28; his son-in-law, Samuel Beavers, lived half a mile to the westward. Both Moore and Beavers were from Ohio, and were members of the United Brethren Church, Mr. Moore being a minister of that denomina¬ tion. Simeon and John Moore were also early settlers on Moore's branch.

¥m. Mann lived a mile south of James Staggs (southwest quarter section 9), north of the M., K. & T. railroad. Mr. Mann was a settler of some prominence and consequence. He was a good blacksmith, a fairly good doctor, a man of some means and a slave owner.

lived his brother-in-law, a man named Hammons, who died in the fall of 1842, and was buried in the Moore graveyard - the first death and burial of an adult in the township. Louis Wilder mar¬ ried Hammons ' widow and resided in the neighborhood. Horace Wentworth was another early settler in the neighborhood of Ferguson, living on the same section.

In 1843 Hugh Ferguson put up a band mill. He, Louis Wilder, and David Teel went down on Horse creek and got the stones and put them in proper shape for use. This mill was the first in the township, and served the purpose of the settlers very well.

In about 1844 or 1845 Ferguson, Wilder, and Wentworth moved back to Knox county, Illinois, from whence they had come directly. All three, however, were Kentuckians originally.

In 1845 John J. Baxter located at Son's Point, a locality a mile and a half east of the present court house, not far from the cabin mentioned as the work of John Son, Jr.

In 1846, Thomas H. Austin settled on a tract of land, a por¬ tion of which is now included within the city of Nevada. His house was located about one-fourth of a mile south of the present court house. Colonel Austin purchased the claim from a man named Allen, who went elsewhere. Austin himself entered the land in 1854.

The first settlers built their houses in the edge of the timber and farmed the prairie principally, although nearly every family had a " truck patch" in the timber. There was but little farm¬ ing done, however; no attempt was made to engage extensively in general agriculture. If a sufficiency of " bread" corn and a few vegetables for home consumption were raised, the people were satisfied. There were serious drawbacks, too, to an extensive scale or system of farming. The green-head flies were so bad on the prairies in summer that but little plowing could be done with horses during that season, and every fall the prairies were swept over by disastrous fires, which frequently invaded exposed fields and destroyed the crops. There was little inducement, moreover, for engaging largely in grain or crop-growing. There was no home market worth quoting for wheat, corn, and produce, and it would not pay to haul it to Independence and Boonville for the prices then in vogue.

they resorted to Balltown and Montevallo, until Nevada was started. From the first settlement until 1855 there were two or three drouthv years, when crops were either a total or a partial failure. At these times the people were driven to go either down into the Spring river country or east on Sac, in order to procure provisions from their more fortunate neighbors.

The country was as healthy as to-day. The principal dis¬ eases were chills and fever, and rheumatism. The first physician that practiced in the "Haletown" settlement was Dr. White,' who in 1852 removed to John Hale's place. After the war, Dr. "White married the widow of A. G. Hale, of Ft. Scott, and died on the Marmaton.

Religious services were held by the Methodists at a very early date. In October, 1841, Rev. Reuben Aldridge, serving as a missionary of the M. E. Church, held a two days' meeting on Jesse Anderson's place, and organized a class. People attended from far and near. Afterward the Missouri Conference sent cir¬ cuit riders into the country, who preached at "Haletown" - as the settlement near Nevada was called - every four weeks. The first of these circuit riders was Lorenzo "Waugh, an earnest, zealous preacher, prominently identified with the history of the Methodist Church in southwest Missouri. He was succeeded by Rev. Deeper.

"With the location of the county seat at Nevada City, the country in Center township began to improve and grow in value ; but, like other portions of the country, it had just begun to settle fairly when the Civil "War came with its swords and torches, and from 1861 to 1866 there was no progress, and indeed the town¬ ship did not hold its own.

After the war, or in 1866, this township started up again and in a few years, so rapid had been its advancement, it was dif¬ ficult to believe that there had ever been a war, or that the prosperity of the country had ever been checked by any cause whatever. This course of prosperity has been uninterrupted to the present time.