County of Marker: Knox County
Location of Marker: 4th St. & E. LaFayette St., Edina
Marker Erected by: Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission
Date of Marker: 1957
Marker Text:
Edina, the seat of Knox County, was laid out here in the glacial plains of northeast Missouri, 1839, by W.J. Smallwood. Scotsman S.W.B. Carnegy, who surveyed the new town, named it the poetic form of Edinburgh. The county, formed 1843 and organized 1845, is named for Revolutionary War General Henry Knox. An area rich in soil and water resources, Knox County lies in territory ceded by the Iowa, Sac, and Fox Indians in 1824. Some 70 Indian mounds have been found in the county.
The county was first settled near Newark, to the south, by James Fresh in 1833. Early pioneers coming mainly from Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, and Kentucky were followed by a large Irish immigration and also a number of Germans in the late 1830's. One of the first Catholic parishes in northeast Missouri was St. Joseph's, formed here in 1837. Today's St. Joseph Church was built, 1873-1875.
Early schools in Edina were St. Joseph's Academy founded, 1865; Lyon Academy, 1866; Edina Seminary (Knox Collegiate Institute), 1878; St. Joseph's College for Boys, 1883; and at Novelty, to the south, was Oaklawn College, founded in 1876.
Centered in rolling prairie land of Knox County, a grain and livestock farming area, Edina lies north of the South Fork of the Fabius (name probably derived from early trapper). Also in the county are North and Middle Fabius and the Salt and North Rivers.
During the Civil War, Edina was occupied July 30, 1861, by Colonel M.E. Green and the pro-Southern State Guards. At Newark, Union troops led by Capt. W.W. Lair surrendered to Confederates under Colonel Joseph C. Porter, August 1, 1862, after a sharp skirmish. In the railroad boom after the war, Knox County subscribed $184,000 in bonds by 1870 to the unsuccessful Mo. and Miss. Railroad. By 1899 the debt was paid. The Quincy, Mo., and Pac. R.R. (C.B.& Q.) reached Edina, 1872.
Edina was the birthplace of noted jurist George Turner (1850-1932). Union General T.T. Taylor edited an Edina newspaper, 1868-73, and Confederate Capt. Griffin Frost, author of "Camp and Prison Journal," edited another paper here, 1874-1905. Henry E. Sever, book publisher, born near Hurdland to the south, bequeathed $100,000 to Knox County for a Wildlife Sanctuary, 1941.
Corrections and additions since 1957
1. Construction on the St. Joseph's Church building began in 1872.
2. St. Joseph's Academy closed its doors in 1996.