FIRST - Recorded Settlement & Postmaster - Pilot Grove, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 52.479 W 092° 54.699
15S E 507663 N 4302870
History of a small town, getting smaller.
Waymark Code: WM11CM0
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 09/28/2019
Views: 3
County of Marker: Cooper County
Location of Marker: Roe St. & College St., Pilot Grove
marker Erected by: Friends of Pilot Grove
Date Marker Erected: 2003
Marker Text:
PILOT GROVE - 1873 Pilot Grove received its name from an extensive grove of hickory trees surrounding a watering place, a welcome sight to travelers across the featureless prairie.
Two trails met here. One from the Missouri River to the Southwest (Georgetown Road), and the other, heading Northwest to Independence, skirting the Chouteau land grant.
The first recorded settlement was one mile south at the Mt. Vernon Branch, around 1820. Here the Cumberland Presbyterians began a brush arbor church and cemetery, with a school, mill, Methodist Church, Harris Store to follow. John McCutcheon was the first Postmaster, appointed in 1833. Residents along the Georgetown Road saw Gen. Lyon's Union march from Boonville to defeat at Springfield in 1961; "Bloody Bill" Anderson's raid Oct. 1863, and the arrival of the MKT Railroad in 1873, a visit from the "Orphan Train" in the 1920s and a munitions train wreck May 6, 1945.
Commercial development moved north toward the railhead when Pilot Grove became a platted town, formally chartered in 1873, on farmland of Samuel Roe (Postmaster 1858-1872).
The present Catholic, Baptist, Methodist and former Presbyterian and Christian Church congregations date from this time as well as the old city hall and calaboose.
The business district boasted banks, shops, and two newspapers, the "Pilot Grove Bee" and a German weekly. The present recreational park was home to a CCC Camp built in 1939 during the depression years.
This marker stands on the site of the former Goode Hotel
EARLY LANDOWNERS AND SETTLERS1814 David and Elizabeth (McMahan) McGee/Martha,_______,
1820 Samuel and Margaret (Ross) Woolridge
1821 Jacob and Dorothy (Simons) Houx/
.... Margaret (Massie) Houx
.... John and Frances McCutcheon/Anna, (Tutt)
1824 John and Sophia (Francisco) Ross
.... Edward and Nancy (Woolridge) Winders
1825 George and Elinor (Edwards) Shoemaker
.... Thomas B. and Elizabeth (Massie) Smith
1826 Samuel Gilbert
1827 Azariah and Nancy (Anderson) Bone
.... Noah and Sarah (Meredith) Graham
.... William and Charlotte (Woolridge) Kirkman
.... Absolam and Nancy (Moss) Meredith
.... Samuel and Elizabeth (Leigh) Roe/ Sarah,____,
.... David and Elizabeth (Bingham) Woolridge
1829 John Rice
1831 John Caton
.... Joseph Deford
.... Garland and Nancy Ross
1832 John Houx
1834 Isiah and Mary (Houx) Hanna
1835 William and Catherine (Houx) Cranmer
.... John Redman William Redman
1836 William L. and Lucinda (Terrell) Boulware
1838 Samuel and Sarah (Gunnel) Coleman
1839 Peter H. and Susan (Meredith) Ferrell
1840 John and Ellender (Bright) McElroy
1841 Lewis A. and Sarah (Coleman) Summers
1847 Elizabeth O. Massie
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