County of Marker: Macon County
Location of Marker: US-63, @ County Fairgrounds, Macon
Marker Erected by: State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission
Date Marker Erected: 1955
Marker Text:
Macon
Macon is the seat of justice for one of Missouri's richest coal bearing counties. The town was laid out on rolling upland prairie, between the Middle Fork of the Salt and the East Fork of the Chariton rivers, 1856. Hudson, named for a railroad official, was laid out just west, 1857, and both towns joined as Macon City, 1859. The Hannibal and St. Joseph (Burlington) reached here, 1858, and the North Missouri (Wabash), 1859.
A railroad center, Macon was a Union troop concentration point in the Civil War, and it replaced pro-Southern Bloomington as seat of Macon County, 1863. Organized, 1837, the county is named for Nathaniel Macon, Revolutionary War soldier and N.C. statesman. Here 11 military parole violators were executed by order of Union General Lewis Merrill, Sept. 26, 1862.
Macon County, through which passes the Great Divide between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, abounds in bituminous coal deposits. A prime coal producer, the county was first in the state, 1891-1913. Coal was first discovered at nearby Bevier, laid out, 1858, named for Col. Robert S. Bevier.
Macon lies in the Glacial Plains Region of Missouri, territory claimed by Sac, Fox, and Iowa Indians until 1824. Pre-historic Indian mounds are found in the area and the Great Indian Trail is believed to have crossed the county near Macon. A pioneer trail, the Bee Trace ran north from here. First settlers, from the South, came in late 1820's, and soon many states and countries were represented. In the late 1860's, Welsh settled nearby New Cambria. Many Welsh and later Italians came to mine the coal.
Early schools established in Macon were Johnson College (Methodist), 1866; St. James Academy and St. Agnes Hall (Episcopal), 1875 and 1884; outstanding Blees Military Academy, 1899; and south at College Mound, noted McGee (Presbyterian) College, 1853. Blees Academy was sold, 1914, and is now the Still-Hildreth Osteopathic Sanatorium.
Macon owes much of its development to Col. F.W.V. Blees (1860-1906), Prussian-born educator, businessman, and philanthropist; and to Theodore Gary (1854-1952), utilities magnate, first chairman Mo. State Highway Commission, and town benefactor.
Update since 1955:
The Still-Hidreth Osteopathic Sanatorium closed in 1971.