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    Kirksville
    Kirksville
    Kirksville
    Ebook162 pages47 minutes

    Kirksville

    By Erika Woehlk

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Kirksville has made a name for itself with its two major institutions of higher education Truman State University and A.T. Still University that attract bright students from all over the world. Incorporated in 1857, it has grown to become the most populous city in northeast Missouri. As the seat of government for Adair County, the courthouse stands proudly in the center of the business square downtown. Entrepreneurs have benefited from railroad lines that entered the town in the 1870s, and many businesses have flourished in Kirksville as a result. Residents braved the tumultuous Civil War and rebuilt the town after major tornadoes and ice storms. Kirksville is a beautiful place to live, as exemplified by nearby Thousand Hills State Park. It is indeed the town where people make the difference.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateOct 13, 2014
    ISBN9781439647752
    Kirksville

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      Book preview

      Kirksville - Erika Woehlk

      (Truman).

      INTRODUCTION

      Today, Kirksville, Missouri, is a bustling small town with a population of over 17,500 and several points of interest to draw visitors. The town is situated in Northeast Missouri (NEMO) in the county of Adair. It is the largest settlement in NEMO, about 30 miles south of the Iowa border. Kirksville has grown from an inauspicious cluster of cabins to the home of two major first-class universities. It is a fabulous example of an American town, thanks to the people who have invested their time, money, and talents to make it grow and prosper.

      Kirksville was incorporated in 1857, but people were living here long before then. First, of course, were Native Americans. Some of the oldest evidence of native peoples can be found in Thousand Hills State Park, where visitors can see petroglyphs carved over a millennium ago. The first European settlers arrived in the early 19th century. These people attempted to create a village about six miles west of where Kirksville is today. However, mutual aggressions involving the Ioway tribe resulted in a temporary disbanding of this first settlement. A few years after the clash with Great Walker and his people, white folks showed up again, at the same settlement, now nicknamed The Cabins.

      A couple of decades later, more settlers were coming to newly formed Adair County, and the Ioway found themselves pushed out. Surveyors started laying out the plat of a small settlement in the middle of the county sometimes called Hopkinsville, other times Long Point. Legend has it that the surveyors were treated to a nice dinner by resident Jesse Kirk, and as a thank-you, they officially named the town after him.

      Kirksville looked like a lot of small Missouri towns in 1860. There was a central business district in the middle of town and a few outlying businesses and in-town residences as well. Mostly, the town was surrounded by agricultural land. The population was 658: 655 white men and women, 3 free black men, and no slaves (although Adair County as a whole had 86 slaves).

      America’s Civil War (1861–1865) affected nearly every household in the nation in some way. Kirksville was in the northern part of a conflicted state full of people fighting on both sides. As a border state, Missouri saw over 1,000 battles in these five years. Kirksville was not spared, and in August 1862, a battle broke out in the middle of town. Casualties were heavy. Union and Confederate soldiers were fighting for what they believed in. A provost marshal patrolled the county, as martial law was in effect throughout most of the war. Times were difficult; neighbor turned against neighbor. The stress of such a situation on families and the economy cannot be understated.

      As the dust and blood cleared, Kirksvillians gathered up their collective skirts and pants and moved on. Growth was fueled by the railroad, which came to Kirksville in the early 1870s. Once that happened, goods could be transported to St. Louis and other metropolitan areas, and of course, they went the other way as well. Mining became a huge boon to Adair County soon afterward. Lots of coal mines popped up in the area over the next few decades, especially around the small town of Novinger. Kirksville residents worked at these mines, and their labor was fruitful, not just for their own families, but for the companies and the county as a whole.

      The railroad fueled other industries as well. The Friedman-Shelby Shoe Factory became the largest employer in Kirksville. At its height, over 5,000 pairs of shoes were produced in a day. The town had other factories. Hotels for weary travelers sprang up all over. Small restaurants, bars, pool halls, and even a skating rink were soon incorporated. By 1890, Kirksville’s population had grown to about 3,500.

      Education is a significant part of what makes Kirksville the place it is today. Kirksville’s educational institutions were many. Some survived, and others did not. Elementary and secondary schools started in the 1860s and continued to undergo reformations as the field of education (and Kirksville) grew. Rural one-room schoolhouses were the norm, sometimes even in town. An early-20th-century rural educator, Marie Turner Harvey, spoke at national conferences in her prime. She wrote essays, allowed visitors to come to her classroom to see her best practices, and was lauded as one of the nation’s most innovative and respected educators.

      Kirksville’s two most recognizable institutions of higher education, Truman State University (Truman) and A.T. Still University (ATSU), began in 1867 and 1892, respectively. Truman is a highly selective public institution financed in part by the State of Missouri. ATSU is a private, nonprofit medical school of osteopathic medicine. Both institutions are nationally known and are consistently ranked among the highest schools in their class. They are also the largest employers in town today.

      Truman and ATSU are not alone in their Kirksville origins, however. Quite a few other institutions of higher learning have given it a go, only to fold after some time in the business. Kirksville Mercantile College, the Richard Wagner Conservatory for Music and Modern Languages, and at least two different Kirksville Business Colleges have given it the old college try, so to speak.

      Kirksvillians, by and large a friendly and hardy lot, have had their share of troubles. At least three major tornadoes have hit the town, the first and most damaging in 1899, and the most recent in 2009. Frequent fires have vanquished businesses. Ice storms are a regular elemental occurrence, too.

      Regardless of what nature and humanity throw at Kirksville, it has managed to flourish as much as a medium-sized town can. Residents

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